Færslur mánudaginn 15. maí 2000

At 13:57: Interview With the Search Engine 

Some silly person thought of doing an interview with Mr. Jeeves the web-search entrepreneur.

This is one of these brilliant ideas I wish I had come up with.

Funny!

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At 13:52: Language as User Interface 

A List Apart article Language: The Ultimate User Interface makes a healthy reminder.

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At 11:32: Free E-Commerce Usability Report 

Mark Hurst writes in his newsletter: "In Search of E-Commerce: The first e-commerce report Creative Good ever published is now online, for free. It's a bit dated -- the second edition was published in February 1999 -- but it shows some interesting before-and-after shots on sites like Amazon and Expedia, from redesigns between the first and second editions of the report."

This report is a very good read for anyone interested in basic usability. The authors walk the readers through few of the most important e-commerce sites (of that time) and point out many of the basic flaws they find through simple heuristic evaluation.

Their findings are insightful and written in plain English, and are therefore an ideal learning material for anyone that wishes to gain insight into the world of usability design.

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At 09:41: Lynx Rules! 

Delorie Lynx viewer is an excellent mediator tool that allows you to view how any web page through the eyes of a lynx user. (lynx is the defacto standard text only web-browser)

Lynx-Me is another one, but it unfortuneatly removes all links and it's thus impossible to use it for browsing sites.

Lynx presents html pages in a linear fashion and removes any table layouting effects. Seeing once in a while how your sites arrive to those not blessed with graphic browsers, is very healthy for any serious web-designer.

Accessability will be a growing concern for everyone involved in web-design in the years to come, and lynx-emulators are a great tool for enhancing your accessablility awareness skills.

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At 09:31: Napster Schmapster 

Everybody is going nuts over Napster, and Gnutella, and Freenet.

I guess The Value of Gnutella and Freenet is a good article. Furthermore, by searching the late April and May archives of Tomalak's Realm one can get a pretty broad picture of the issue.

Actually there is soooo much talk about Napster and its clones and the inevitable concerns of copyright holders, that I almost can't be bothered commenting.

Still, I just can't help publishing my views - just for the record.

My two cents

Content consumers, without the help of the publication giants, found a distribution path of less restistance, and are now routing around the old parts of the (distribution) system that are too inefficient.

The record companies are finally becoming redundant in the process of making music available to consumers. They simply need to accept this and down-size their operations to focus on those aspects of the business where they're still needed; production, arrangement of gigs and promotions.

Yet again advances in technology shift power around - those affected need to either move out its way or get crushed.

Mantra for the digital economy

Content is worthless, services are everything. Content is worthless, services are everything. Content is worthless, services are everything. Content is worthless, services are everything...

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